Covering the whole development process for the global biotechnology industry

Bioprocessing begins upstream, most often with culturing of animal or microbial cells in a range of vessel types (such as bags or stirred tanks) using different controlled feeding, aerating, and process strategies.

Beginning with harvest of material from a bioreactor, downstream processing removes or reduces contaminants to acceptable levels through several steps that typically include centrifugation, filtration, and/or chromatographic technologies.

Drug products combine active pharmaceutical ingredients with excipients in a final formulation for delivery to patients in liquid or lyophilized (freeze-dried) packaged forms — with the latter requiring reconstitution in the clinical setting.

Many technologies are used to characterize biological products, manufacturing processes, and raw materials. The number of options and applications is growing every day — with quality by design (QbD) giving impetus to this expansion.

Even as it matures, the biopharmaceutical industry is still a highly entrepreneurial one. Partnerships of many kinds — from outsourcing to licensing agreements to consultancies — help companies navigate this increasingly global business environment.

Continuous Processing Optimization With Smarter Tools

Single-use technology (SUT) has long been viewed as a viable solution to today’s biopharmaceutical manufacturing challenges. It offers the flexibility to change a production configuration to meet demand while also offering many other cost benefits, such as savings related to the elimination of clean-in-place (CIP) and sterilization-in-place (SIP) processes. However, traditional and fed-batch models fail when trying to adapt to single-use flexibility due to the required rewriting of code and revalidation. The best way to use the flexibility of single-use is to pair it with a modular automation system in a continuous processing configuration. This setup eliminates the limitations and burdens of manual control while optimizing the throughput from upstream to downstream. Through the application of technology available today, manufacturers can reap the significant cost savings provided by a continuous processing strategy while also applying the controls necessary to successfully monitor and control it.